FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CHILD ABUSE - PAGE 2

A child who passed gas while on a Pompano Beach elementary school playground angered an after-school counselor who is accused of striking him, the Broward Sheriff's Office said. Givincia Exantus, 20, of North Lauderdale was arrested Wednesday for the alleged incident that happened April 25, 2013, when she worked at Palmview Elementary School in Pompano Beach. On that day, Exantus called the child "nasty" and struck him with a "skip ball" cord approximately four or five times, injuring him, according to a Broward Sheriff's complaint affidavit.

The teenager showed up at the Riviera Beach Police Department on May 6 with bruises all over his body. What he told police resulted in an arrest for Cassandra Denise Edmonds, whom he said beats him with a hockey stick. He said that he was afraid to go back into her care, according to a Riviera Beach police arrest report. Police Monday arrested Edmonds, 36, on two counts of aggravated child abuse, according to the report. The teen and his younger brother told police that Edmonds also hits them with a "rat-tail comb," a belt, extension cords and "anything else she can get her hands on. " The officer wrote in the report that a rat-tail comb has a pointed handle that "could cause a puncture if ample pressure is applied.

Mez Pierre, 26, a former foster child, now grown and married with two daughters, said, "When I was little my mentors were drug dealers and criminals. My father gave me a gun to shoot someone when I was 5 years old. " He estimates he lived in 40 to 50 foster care homes, group homes or facilities In 2009, Pierre accompanied Gia Tutalo-Mote, the founder and CEO of Forever Families, an agency dedicated to finding permanent homes for children in the state care or foster care system, to Tallahassee to speak before the legislature on child protection bills.

A veteran Davie Police Officer recently returned to work eight months after he was accused of striking his two teenage daughters during a fight. Timothy "Scott" Donohue, 47, resumed his position as a road patrol officer on Aug. 29 after he was suspended without pay for two weeks and signed an agreement regarding future discipline. Davie Police Chief Patrick Lynn recommended firing Donohue as a result of his arrest in December on felony child abuse and misdemeanor battery charges.

After receiving complaints from folks who reported that Tawny Lynn Blazejowski had been stalking them, the Sheriff's Special Victim's Section began a complex investigation over the past year into these allegations, according to a news release from the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office. Reports indicated that the 39-year-old St. Augustine woman was continually using the Crime Stoppers tip line, the Department of Children and Families Hotline and the cyber-tip line with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to make false accusations of sexual and physical child abuse against six victims that she deliberately targeted, according to the report.

Make a statement with your casual wear on Tuesday. "Denim Day" seeks to raise awareness of sexual assaults and child abuse. Wearing denim protests "destructive attitudes about sexual assaults," Broward officials said. Denim Day came about in Italy in 1998 when a teenager was raped and the man's conviction overturned because of the "denim defense. " The court said the victim's jeans were so tight, she would have had to help her attacker remove them. April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Former Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Mark Duper has been arrested in Jacksonville on charges of child abuse, according to The Florida Times-Union. According to the report, Duper punched and slammed a teenage boy to the floor, knocking him unconscious. He was booked into the Duval County jail on $5,000 bail, according to the report. Duper, known as "Super Duper" during his playing days with fellow receiver Mark Clayton and quarterback Dan Marino, played for the Dolphins from 1982 to 1992.

A network of Broward County agencies recently hosted a free community education event to get out the message about preventing child abuse. More than 400 people turned out for Pinwheels for Prevention: Empowering Families at the Reverend Samuel Delevoe Park in Fort Lauderdale. "We were trying to communicate information to adults, as well as children, about child abuse and ways to prevent it," said Nancy Cotterman, director of the county's Sexual Assault Treatment Center. Her agency teamed with ChildNet, the Broward Sheriff's Office, the Department of Children and Families and others to coordinate the event for Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month.

An assistant principal at L.C. Swain Middle School in Greenacres is charged with two counts of child abuse after his teenage son and daughter claimed he beat them in February, reports show. Charles Anthony Plummer, 42, of Royal Palm Beach, was arrested Thursday and released Friday under orders to have no contact with the children. Plummer could not be reached for comment. Plummer, who reported his arrest to the Palm Beach County School District, is being reassigned to a non-student contact position and "the district will take any appropriate action at the conclusion of the case," spokesman Nat Harrington said on Friday.

A former private school employee charged with felony abuse of two children pleaded guilty in one case and no contest in the second case and received probation, officials said. In 2012, a then-12-year-old boy who misbehaved during a field trip was thrown to the ground by David Michael Baier, 50, who taught at AEF School at 4650 SW 61st Ave. in Davie, according to Davie police. After Baier's arrest, a second family came forward to make an accusation, Baier's lawyer, Steven M. Swickle said Monday.